Hockey world cup: Technical glitches in website for ticket sale

Bhubaneswar: Thousands of hockey lover today expressed resentment after website meant for online ticket booking for Men’s Hockey World Cup didn’t open due to heavy traffic.

Even as the sale of ticket was scheduled to begin from 12 noon, the website www.ticketgenie.in was down for hours. Even some sports lovers tried for more than two hours for a ticket, but in vain.

Odisha Sports department passed the buck on to Hockey India which is looking after the ticket affairs. “We have nothing to do with ticket as Hockey India has taken the charge of ticket selling. The website may face heavy traffic that led to crash of the site. We are in touch with the Hockey India for what best can be done. There must be some technical issues,” Sports department deputy secretary Manoj Padhi said.

He, however, assured the sports lovers that adequate number of tickets is available for the mega event.

On the other hand, Hockey India cited that heavy traffic led to the website crash. In a tweet, it stated “Your overwhelming response to purchase online tickets for the Opening Ceremony & the World Cup celebration events of the OHMWC Bhubaneswar 2018 from http://www.ticketgenie.in has led to the slowing down of the website”.

“However, there’s good news in store as the website will be restored shortly and you can continue to purchase your online tickets,” it added in another tweet.

“However, now a queue system is in place. Request all to kindly cooperate in view of the larger demand compared to the stadium capacity available,”it further tweeted.

There is heavy rush for ticket for the opening ceremony at Bhubaneswar on 27, November and World Cup celebrations at Cuttack in the following day on 28. Bollywood star like Shah Rukh Khan, AR Rahman and Bahubali star Prabhas are expected to perform in the event.

Hockey India had announced on Sunday that online ticket sale for the ceremony of Hockey Men’s World Cup Bhubaneswar 2018 will begin from Tuesday. It has said the online ticket sales will go live at 12 noon the same day.

Around 10,500 tickets are likely to be sold for the inaugural ceremony in Bhubaneswar and 30,000 tickets for the November 28 event, sources said.